Two Years Two Drinks, Two Halves of a Broken Heart
by Kkarrie
Summary: Lassiter has a couple drinks and wonders if hearts are made whole just so they can be broken. Episode Tag for Tuesday the 17th.


Lassiter listened to the ice clinking against his tumbler as he set it down on the bar. There was a low murmur of talking around the room, but no noisy band playing, no drunken shouting, just the murmur of talking. Then a girly giggle cut through the hum.

He glanced over his shoulder at the corner booth, there was a young couple sitting next to each other, oblivious to everything around them. The girl laughed again, her husband, judging by the rings they were wearing, must have said something hilarious.

Lassiter used to make Victoria laugh like that. Everyone seemed to be surprised when Lassiter brought up a happy memory of his marriage. Even O'Hara's optimism didn't seem to apply to her partner's relationship with his ex-wife.

Ex-wife, there was a phrase Lassiter never thought would be associated with himself. He had fought for his marriage. Sometimes the tactics had been dirty; he wasn't proud he'd cloned her phone, followed her for the first week. He just wanted to know why she had left. His first instinct had been that there was another man. There was no other man, there was no drug addiction, there wasn't anything that Lassiter had imagined would pull her away from him. He had been the reason she had left, she wasn't pulled away, she was driven away.

Lassiter took a sip of his drink and frowned slightly when only ice met his lips. He waved down the bartender for another drink. It was two years to the day he'd signed the papers. That dinner was supposed to be special and now it was forever etched in his mind as the day he failed to win back his wife.

He had spent days picking out flowers, chocolate, even the necklace had taken a week's worth of lunch breaks to pick out. He'd gone to every jewelery store in the city to find the perfect one. He took a sip of his new drink and rubbed his hands over his face.

_OoO OoO OoO OoO_

_It was perfect, even though he'd gotten there almost two hours early. Even that ended up being a blessing in disguise, because Victoria was at the bar as well. _  
><em><br>Lassiter smiled and walked over to her, his eyes flicking for a moment to the empty martini glass sitting in front of her, as well as, the full one in her hands._

_They had made small talk until their reservation time came up. They talked about the weather, Victoria's father, Lassiter's mother. It seemed, to Lassiter, so normal for them to be chatting. It was the same conversations they'd had when they were first married. Lassiter would come home from the station and they would sit and talk over dinner and drinks. That first month had been bliss._

_They were seated at seven exactly. They had ordered their entrees when Lassiter decided to surprise her with the necklace. Damn Karen and her cautionary advice, that's what had landed him in this mess in the first place._

_Then she had shocked him when she pulled out the blue folder with divorce papers. He tried to reason with her, tried to talk her out of it. Their food came to the table, but neither of them wanted to eat it. Eventually they had asked the waiter to take it away. That was when Victoria had excused herself and headed for the bathroom._

_Lassiter stared at the folder across the table. He could burn it, he could throw it out of the door, he could shoot it into a million pieces like he had done with her figurines. He could... Lassiter sighed and reached out a hand, resting it on the folder. Maybe... maybe this was supposed to be over. Maybe five years of lawyers and arguments over the phone every three weeks should be laid to rest._

_He pulled a pen out of his jacket pocket and scribbled his signature at the bottom of the page and put the papers back in the folder. He didn't even bother reading them. They would be exactly the same as all the others, they would each keep their respective cars, the house had been sold a couple of years ago and they would each get half of that money. Standard divorce proceedings. Maybe that's why he and Victoria had gotten along so well in the beginning, they had both liked the classics._

_Lassiter looked up as Victoria came back. He felt defeated and he knew it showed in his face. She saw the folder sitting at her place still. "Carlton, you knew this was coming,"_

_"Don't," Lassiter held up a hand. "I signed them while you were in the bathroom."_

_She gave him a wary look and then checked the papers for his signature. She studied him. "A year ago you would have set these on fire."_

_"A year ago I would have set them on fire and put them back in your purse." He corrected her, looking around the restaurant. The wait staff was beginning to clear the empty tables. They were the only customers left in the place._

_Lassiter had said something about a new life and wanting to move forward and apologized for his actions right after she had left him. Then she grabbed his jacket lapels and kissed him. That brief moment, he wanted it to last forever. It had shocked him, but he had followed her slightly as she broke the kiss. He wanted to scoop her up in his arms and make her forget all the bad blood between them. But he didn't, he slowly put his arms back down and watched her head for the door. Maybe she would turn around, rip up the divorce papers and run to his arms._

_OoO OoO OoO OoO_

She hadn't turned around. Lassiter took another sip of his drink. He had wanted her to turn around, but that wasn't who Victoria was. Victoria wasn't the kind of person to change her mind once it had been set. She had walked out the door, and out of his life.


End file.
